Convert X to dvd-player
how to convert videos into a format understood by my standalone divx-compliant dvd player (yamaha dvd-s661).
Avidemux
Set video to MPEG-4 ASP, audio to MP3, format to AVI, and save.
If low quality input, e.g. from VCR tape, resize to 352x480 under filters. Play with the Auto settings (PSP,Ipod) for easy adding of black borders etc.
Make sure to test audio is still in sync by fast forwarding to near end of video and watching & listening for a bit, in another application and on the player.
ffmpeg
This simple line below took hours and hoursto figure out, spread over many days. sheesh.
ffmpeg -i infile.avi -vcodec mpeg4 -vtag divx -sameq out.avi
A more evolved example:
ffmpeg -i infile.avi -f avi -vcodec mpeg4 -vtag divx -acodec libmp3lame \\
-s 320x240 -sameq out.avi
Vtag divx was the critical missing piece, hat tip to Anonymous Coward (turns out -vtag xvid works too). Audio codec is there just in case I encounter a codec not understood by my player, might be overkill. Resizing to 352x480 pixels is because my tv is standard NTSC and only shows that much anyway. And yes I know this could lose info, but that's okay as I'm not using this for backing up dvd's, just a bunch of old stuff from tape.
File sizes are double an h264 encoded video. I'm not sure if that's because h264 is so much better than mpeg4 or if I'm unwittingly adding something which isn't there.
Future research
using '-target dvd-ntsc' might set proper interlace settings with a minimum of fuss (and then override with above to use mpeg4) - http://www.itdp.de/transcode-users/2.../msg00067.html
Sources
How do I encode Xvid or DivX video with ffmpeg? - http://www.ffmpeg.org/faq.html#SEC22
For players that don't recognize "XVID", etc... - http://www.linux.com/archive/?module...ay&cid=1153583
Using ffmpeg to manipulate audio and video files - http://howto-pages.org/ffmpeg/